Photojournalism nominee

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Iraq come from a wide range of backgrounds and age groups. Some are previous college students that left university to defend their homes against ISIS invasion. Others are stalwart fighters with battlefield stripes that stretch back into the 1980s. On the other hand, another group consists of soldiers who recently left their families, and livelihoods, to enter the battlefield. Regardless of the fighter’s individual background; the amassed force remains the spearhead of hope for pacifying the malevolent threat posed by Daesh opposition. It’s a unanimous feeling of solidarity, that it is a matter of duty to defend their land at all costs.